News Clips 01/16/2013

USF Bypasses Brick & Mortar, Offers Online Masters Degrees

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By Mark Schreiner

The University of South Florida continues expanding its web presence as it prepares to roll out a pair of online masters degree programs.

The College of Business' online Master of Science in management information systems (MIS) degree program launches in the spring 2013 semester, while the College of Engineering's online MS in Electrical Engineering for professionals degree program gets underway in the summer 2013 semester.

Both programs are being run in partnership with USF University College and will feature a series of "100% online" courses that can be completed in 18-24 months. In addition, they target similar audiences.

“An ideal candidate would be a working professional who does not have enough flexibility in terms of time to enroll in an on-campus program that has a fixed schedule," said Dr. Kaushal Chari, the chairman of the USF Information Systems Decision Sciences Department.

"I would say that a large group of those (interested) would be individuals that are either in industry and wish to advance their position within their company or are looking to become more competitive on the job market and look for a new company to work for,” adds Dr. Tom Weller, chair of the USF Electrical Engineering Department.

Applications for the MIS program need to be submitted by January 31st, and for the Electrical Engineering program by March 15th.

USF's online graduate engineering program was recently ranked by U.S. News as the 22nd best such program in the nation (the university's graduate education program was ranked 47th in its division.